Pixie dust on our DREAM vacation! Update 06/08 TR finished!!

[podsnel]

WOW!!! That is VERY exciting!! 2 whole weeks- it will be heavenly.... and I have to say, I am VERY excited for you to see the Caribbean- both East AND West! Also anxious to see how you like a longer cruise instead of the shorter ones. You have SO MUCH to look forward to!! Us too- when we read all about it.

 

[JERSEYGIRLINSI]

WoW! A back to back on the Fantasy...wonderful tweek! I'm offically jealous.

BTW...Have followed all of your reports, and I love them all. How wonderful it must be to have a brother that is in love with Disney also!

 

[ColoBlu6]

WoW! A back to back on the Fantasy...wonderful tweek! I'm offically jealous.

BTW...Have followed all of your reports, and I love them all. How wonderful it must be to have a brother that is in love with Disney also!

I agree with with you...

 

[eandesmom]

Wow! B2B on the fantasy will be amazing. I love the pictures of the family stateroom, that is what we will have in August. Deck 7, which we chose specifically as we are stair people and like going up and down lol! If I never make it to the health club, at least i can make myself do stairs on the ship.

Higher was too far from the restaurants and I don't want to deal with elevators if we don't have to.

We are port side specifically for CC!

 

[KatMark]

You are just a "cruising" machine.

 

[dizneeat]

Wow Karin! What a great departure day. The ship is just beautiful. You really were pixie dusted with luck that day. It is just awesome so many CM's remembered you guys. That makes the cruise just that much more special.

Loved seeing the new gift, the backpack, you received. We will get ours in just 5 days now. Woo Hoo! Sorry, I'm getting so very excited. And Tom does a wonderful job on your magnets. I kinda fell behind on making any for this trip. Oh, well, I'm just gonna use some old ones I have.

All the food looks absolutely delish that you had for lunch. And your drinks from Cove Cafe look really good too. Too bad I don't like coffee.

Well, great updated and I can't wait for your next chapter!

The DREAM truly is a beautiful ship. And "running into" some of our favourite CMs was so awesome.
The backpack is really neat. We were actually looking for a new backpack for DLRP and this one came in very handy!

You are so close to your cruise, I really hope you have a wonderful time!

I'm not even a little surprised people remember you guys!! You both are so nice to everyone and you're big Disney fans! That is so nice and I'm glad you got to see them as well!

My DS and I try and watch the Dream on the webcam when we can and heck we might have seen you with your cute mickey gloves!!

I'm glad you had a nice surprise with the bathroom too!! See, it's the little things in life, right?

Can't wait for more....

Heather

Ah, thank you for your sweet words.
We do exactly the same .... watching the DREAM (Fantasy, Magic) go out of Port Canaveral whenever we can - so much fun and it helps with my addicion.

You are so right - it IS the little things or in this case the round things. The tub was really wonderful and I loved the shower!

I think my sister is going to have a room with a round tub/shower too. I am taking pictures for sure...I might even have to go shower in her room once.

Is your sister in a family stateroom? Then she should have a round tub. PLEASE, go try that rainforest shower - so relaxing!

I am on reading your trip report.

Glad you like it! It surely was fun experiencing it first hand!

 

[dizneeat]

Karin! Here I am, catching up again, but it is so much fun to catch up! Oh.my.goodness. LOVE the round tub and shower. What a fabulous stateroom!

It was so much fun watching the ship leave, but didn't find you or Tom...somehow I missed that you'd be wearing the white Mickey Gloves - what fun and so clever!!

Your cabin looks very high on deck 10 - don't want to think about how high deck 12 would be!!

Back to catch up - just love your TR's! Thanks so much for taking the time to share the planning and trips with us!

Hope you & Tom are all recovered from the colds/virus.

We loved the stateroom and will be back in it on our three DREAM cruises in the next two years! We are just two decks lower on the Fantasy cruises!

I guess next time we will have to go up to deck 12 when the ship is leaving. They are showing more of the people on that deck, then the ones in their staterooms!

Deck 10 is pretty high up, but I love it. I do not like heights, but then I am always asking for a higher floor where ever we go!

Thanks for asking, Christine, we are both feeling much better, but I am ready to go on my next vacation!

I have to say (maybe I have already) but I really appreciate that you put dates on your updates. I would be so confused if you didn't!! Following all your reports I find myself having to ask "wait... which trip is this again" So...the dates are very helpful!

What fun to wear gloves for the send off... were your friends able to see you?

I love espresso shakes!!! Those look amazing!

Ann, sometimes I am confused myself and it amazes me that I haven't posted any wrong updates.
The gloves were so much fun as you could tell when people noticed them and pointed at us.
Now, those coffee treats at Cove Cafe are just wonderful and they even gave us a card that if we bought 5 coffee's the sixth one would be free!

And once again Rosie is all caught up!!!

Good to know, Rosie! Now I can start "thinking" about another update.

Great report so far

Welcome! Great to know that you are here as well!

 

[debsters41]

Hello Karin and Tom! I can't believe it has taken me so long to come on board, but I was just too depressed after coming home last year! I look forward to reading about this holiday as well as your report from last year! I hope all is well and I was wondering if you knew that the Disney Magic is sailing seven nights out of Barcelona on August 31, 2013? Just sayin'

 

[thejman]

I just caught up with reading all your great reviews so far. Sounds like a great trip!

 

[jenseib]

Yes she is, so is my Aunt!

 

[Kenai1972]

WOW Karin,
I love your plans for your 2013 vacation. I can't wait to see that TR from the 14 night cruise.

 

[englishrose47]

And Rosie is all caught up again!!!!!!!!

 

[englishrose47]

And Rosie is all caught up again!!!!!!!!

 

[dizneeat]

Loving the trip report. My family and I will board the Dream for the first time March 27th.

Glad you enjoy the trip report!
You are in for a treat on March 27th! The DREAM is such a beautiful ship and the service on board is just outstanding!

Another present! Your leaving us in suspense!! LOL

Sorry I haven't been around as much as I would love to. Mickey demands that I go to work and earn some money to hand over to him!
But I am working on catching up and posting another update.

love the mickey hands and more presents!

Using the Mickey gloves to wave to people was so much fun - we left them in our Owner's locker and are definitely going to use them again in the summer!

We had the round tub in our stateroom too. Rachel said that was the best part of the room. Love your Mickey gloves....great idea. I can't believe Rachel and I missed that Mochaccino....we love those. Love your trip report and photos.

Isn't that round tub awesome? I wholeheartedly agree with Rachel - best part of the room!
Next time you cruise you definitely have to try some of their coffee creations - they are awesome (and they usually give you a card that you can get stamped - once you have had 5 speciality coffees, your sixth is free! Love free things at Disney. )

 

[dizneeat]

All I can say is ..................

WOW!!!!

Thank you, Linda! We are so excited ourselves. It's fun how it only now starts to sink in.

WOW!!! That is VERY exciting!! 2 whole weeks- it will be heavenly.... and I have to say, I am VERY excited for you to see the Caribbean- both East AND West! Also anxious to see how you like a longer cruise instead of the shorter ones. You have SO MUCH to look forward to!! Us too- when we read all about it.

Ellen, I will have to pick your brain on what to do for excursions. Hope you don't mind.
It's going to be so much fun ... and we are so excited that they are offering longer cruises that fit our schedule now too!
I mean I love the shorter itineraries, but Nassau gets "old" pretty fast!

WoW! A back to back on the Fantasy...wonderful tweek! I'm offically jealous.

BTW...Have followed all of your reports, and I love them all. How wonderful it must be to have a brother that is in love with Disney also!

I don't know who's more excited, Tom or myself! We loved our three back to back cruises last summer, but this is going to be awesome!

Let me tell you that I am very happy about the fact that Tom gets Disney as much as I do! And especially that he has fallen in love with cruising too!

I agree with with you...

I think so too! How wonderful he loves Disney as much as I do ..... he just isn't as obsessed with it as I am.

 

[dizneeat]

Wow! B2B on the fantasy will be amazing. I love the pictures of the family stateroom, that is what we will have in August. Deck 7, which we chose specifically as we are stair people and like going up and down lol! If I never make it to the health club, at least i can make myself do stairs on the ship.

Higher was too far from the restaurants and I don't want to deal with elevators if we don't have to.

We are port side specifically for CC!

I am sure it will be amazing.
You are going to love your family stateroom. Gives you a little more room and have I mentioned the round tub?
We actually do a lot of walking while on the ship too. We mostly use the stairs to get up and down, even though we usually are on one of the top decks. We do a lot of running around with our FE gifts as well, we "deliver" every day and it so much fun to get around the ship that way.

Port side is awesome and at CC it is

You are just a "cruising" machine.

We really caught the bug ..... but it is such a relaxing and fun way to vacation!

Hello Karin and Tom! I can't believe it has taken me so long to come on board, but I was just too depressed after coming home last year! I look forward to reading about this holiday as well as your report from last year! I hope all is well and I was wondering if you knew that the Disney Magic is sailing seven nights out of Barcelona on August 31, 2013? Just sayin'

Hi Debbie!
It is so much fun to see you around here! We loved cruising with you last year.
There is just one remedy against the post Disney depression ...... plan another vacation.
I have looked at the Med itineraries for 2013, but we will have APs (got the UK deal again this year and will use the tickets to renew our APs for 2013 as the tickets expire! ) so we need to go to Florida. We are booked on a back to back on the Fantasy .... and guess who will join us for the first part of it? Yip, Ileana and Tati!!!!!!!!!!!
But I hope you'll stick around here anyway!

I just caught up with reading all your great reviews so far. Sounds like a great trip!

Thank you so much for reading! I am so happy to have so many DISboard friends who are so interested in our travels.
We indeed had a wonderful trip.

 

[dizneeat]

Yes she is, so is my Aunt!

I guess a few visits to their staterooms will be in order!

WOW Karin,
I love your plans for your 2013 vacation. I can't wait to see that TR from the 14 night cruise.

I am really happy with our decision and I cannot wait for this vacation to roll around, but then we have a back to back for this summer as well - a double dip and a 4 night, so we'll get to spend nine nights on board as well!

And Rosie is all caught up again!!!!!!!!

You are better than I am catching up, Rosie!

 

[eandesmom]

I am sure it will be amazing.
You are going to love your family stateroom. Gives you a little more room and have I mentioned the round tub?
We actually do a lot of walking while on the ship too. We mostly use the stairs to get up and down, even though we usually are on one of the top decks. We do a lot of running around with our FE gifts as well, we "deliver" every day and it so much fun to get around the ship that way.

Port side is awesome and at CC it is

I was worried about pool noise on the higher decks...did you notice it at all? I thought about it, but it's an extra $600 for 4A so decided that 4C was good enough! For the part of the ship we wanted, if I'd have done deck 8 or 9, we'd have had an inside room across from us so 7 seemed a better fit. We will see! If prices really go down for what's left I may move up but think it would have to be 10 to have it make any sense.

So far the FE for our cruise doesn't really seem to be happening...the meet thread is dead as a doornail so I'm not sure if it will happen, which bums the boys out. Although our FE on the Alaska Wonder was so big, it wore them out doing all the deliveries!

 

[dizneeat]

Day 2, February 19


"You are BACK!!!!" - Part 6

Once back in our stateroom we found another DCL present. The present for gold castaways,

which was a nice notebook and pen,

a luggage strap

and some note cards.

It came with a nice letter inviting us to the Captain’s reception and making a note of the fact that we got 10% off of our purchases.
There was still about an hour left before dinner, so we took our first Fish Extender gifts and our little list and went off to deliver them.
It took us about ¾ of an hour to do so and while we walked around we could see a lot of the staterooms had their DVC magnet on it. We were a bit disappointed to see that our door had been missed, on the other hand it was full already, so maybe they just hadn’t found the space to place it somewhere.
We got changed and took the elevator down to Animator's Palate. Before our cruise some of our Cruise meet thread had linked together their reservations and we were very happy with the arrangements. We shared a table with Princessmom and the Douvres Family and found that we easily found enough topics to talk about before our dinner. Soon enough Ana came around to introduce herself and the assistant server, who’s name I never quite caught, even though he was a very nice guy. We started our dinner of with some Diet Cokes.
The bread offering of the day was the Herb foccacia and ciabatta bread with roasted garlic dip.
Tom and I were still a bit full from the frozen coffee concoction we had enjoyed in the afternoon, so we skipped the bread. Tom ordered

the Wild Mushroom Risotto and Porcini Twist, served with parmigiano-reggiano as his starter and I decided on

the Black Truffle Pasta Purseittes, pasta purse filled with truffle scented cheese and coated with a delicate champagne sauce, which were both wonderful.
Soon our main courses arrived. Tom had

the White Shrimp Pennette Pasta, tossed with a basil and reggiano parmesan cheese sauce and topped with a parmesan cheese wafer and I decided on

the Animator's Trio of Veal, grilled tenderloin, pulled shank and tortellacci pasta with a sun-dried tomato and sage reduction and garnished with a potato crisp. We all enjoyed our dinners and got to know each other, all the while Crush visited the tables and the fish got into fun formations.
And then it was time for dessert. Tom ordered

the Pineapple Financier, almond cake served with whipped cream, which looked better than it actually tasted and I had

the Chocolate Brownie Cheesecake, with whipped cream and raspberry coulis. Once desserts were consumed and we were all stuffed we said our goodbyes and told Ana that we would not dine with them the next day, because we would eat at Remy and the next day we would eat at Palo.
We promised to visit her for breakfast though. We slowly strolled back to our stateroom and were delighted to already find some presents in our Fish Extender.

We thought about what to do but the time change started to catch up with us and we decided to just go to bed.

To be continued ..........

 

[dizneeat]

I was worried about pool noise on the higher decks...did you notice it at all? I thought about it, but it's an extra $600 for 4A so decided that 4C was good enough! For the part of the ship we wanted, if I'd have done deck 8 or 9, we'd have had an inside room across from us so 7 seemed a better fit. We will see! If prices really go down for what's left I may move up but think it would have to be 10 to have it make any sense.

So far the FE for our cruise doesn't really seem to be happening...the meet thread is dead as a doornail so I'm not sure if it will happen, which bums the boys out. Although our FE on the Alaska Wonder was so big, it wore them out doing all the deliveries!

To be honest, I was worried about noise as well, when I read about that here on the boards.
But once we were on board we were not bothered at all. The only noise we could hear was when they were getting Cabanas (we were directly under it) ready and were pushing tables around. But even that was not bad at all.

We changed our stateroom for the Fantasy for 2013 two decks down too. Not because of noise or anything, but funnily enough, while all other categories are a reasonable rise from the one below, ours was 1200+ higher for a 4a!
So since we have the back to back we downgraded, saving 1200$ and just being 2 decks down. We'll see how we like it!

Our meet threads for the summer cruises were pretty dead as well for a long time too! But around 2 - 3 months prior to our cruise they really picked up speed and we had real fun FE exchanges.
Ours were also always reasonable in group size, as Tom and I deliver every day and the DREAM is huge, so we had a nice workout every day, marching up and down the ship!